Carl Davidson
608 E. Miller Ave. Des Moines, IA 50315-2949
(515) 770-2891
davids14@illinois.edu
Objective
To obtain the knowledge needed to devise new computational methods for analyzing and modeling
the environment.
Education
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois
Master of Science Degree, expected May 2012
Program: Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Conservation
Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa
Bachelor of Arts Degree, May 2010
Majors: Environmental Science, Computer Science
GPA: 3.851
Projects
Modeling the Effects of Climate Change on the Fire Regimes of Alaskan Tundra
September 2010 – present
 Modeling the effects of climate change on Alaskan tundra fire regimes using two coupled, state of
the art spatial models: the Ecosystem Demography Model (ED) described by Moorcroft et al.
(2001), and the Alaskan Frame Based Ecosystem Code (ALFRESCO) described by Rupp et al.
(2000).
Spatial Analysis of the Iowa Herpetological Atlas
January 2010 – April 2010
 Performed spatial analysis techniques on a database of reptile and amphibian specimens collected
throughout Iowa.
Text Based Markov Models using a Sequence Alignment Algorithm
November 2009 – December 2009
 Designed a text based Markov model that joins similar n-grams based upon a sequence alignment
algorithm
 Presenting work at the 2010 Midwest Instruction and Computing Symposium
Identifying Gene Regulatory Networks using Evolutionary Algorithms
September 2008 – May 2009
 Implemented a genetic algorithm to generate Bayesian networks representing relationships
between the expression of genes in a portion of the human transcriptome
 Presenting work for the 2010 Posters on the Hill Event in Washington, D.C.
 Presenting work at a 2010 Regional Conference for Computing Sciences in Colleges
 Sponsored by the Maytag-McElroy Undergraduate Research Grant
Morphological Variation of Diadophus punctatus in Iowa
November 2008 – December 2008


Examined 87 specimens of ring neck snake on a number of morphological traits
Discovered a possible sexual dimorphism in ring sizes of the ring neck snake
Simpson College Footprint Monitor
September 2008 – December 2008
 Designed a database to monitor data used to calculate the carbon footprint of Simpson College
Course Scheduling with Genetic Algorithms
September 2007 – April 2006
 Implemented a genetic algorithm to generate course schedules fulfilling college graduation
requirements
 Presented work at the 2008 Midwest Instruction and Computing Symposium
Employment
Research Assistant
August 2010 – present
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Michael Dietze Lab
 Compiling plant species traits for use as parameters in the Ecosystem Demography Model
 Coupling the ALFRESCO and Ecosystem Demography Model
Administrative Intern
February 2008 – August 2010
Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Information Technology Bureau
 Built and maintained an inventory of all computer applications and databases used by the
department
 Built a public web application to register participants of a department sponsored wildlife program
 Maintained an internal web application used to track software bugs
 Migrated and sanitized a database used to track the air emissions of industrial operations across
Iowa. The database was migrated from Microsoft Access to Microsoft SQL Server 2005.
 Developed an internal application used to manage computer accounts of department staff
 Migrated an application used to track permits for fertilizer application. The application was
migrated from Java to C#.
Skills
Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 (8 years)
Java (4 years)
SQL (2 year)
C# (2 year)
ASP.NET (2 year)
HTML (2 year)
Python (1 year)
GNU/Linux (6 months)
Computational Theory (1 semester)
Software Engineering (1 semester)
ArcGIS (1 semester)
R (3 months)
SAS (3 months)
Perl (3 months)
Awards
Simpson College Dean’s List, 2007-2010
Floyd S. Doft Science Award
Meritorious Winner of the 2009 COMAP Interdisciplinary Contest in Mathematical Modeling
Publications
“Text Based Markov Models using a Sequence Alignment Algorithm.” Conference Proceedings.
Midwest Instruction and Computing Symposium (2010)
“Identifying Gene Regulatory Networks using Evolutionary Algorithms.” Conference Proceedings.
Conference for Computing Sciences in Colleges (2010): 231-237.
“Course Scheduling with Genetic Algorithms.” Conference Proceedings. Midwest Instruction and
Computing Symposium (2008): 299-311.
References
Lydia Sinapova, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Computer Science, Simpson College
(515)961-1841
lydia.sinapova@simpson.edu
Marvin Van Wyk, Ph.D.
Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, Simpson College
515-961-1832
marv.vanwyk@simpson.edu
Paul Craven, Ph.D.
Instructor of Computer Science
515-961-1834
paul.craven@simpson.edu